Housebreaking Your New Puppy

Housebreaking your new puppy can be one of the most difficult tasks a new puppy parent will undertake. Here are a few tips to make housebreaking happen quickly, and be painless for both you and your pet.

Buy a crate:

A crate is quite possibly the most valuable tool you could possible purchase in training your puppy. When you go to select a crate try to purchase a crate that will fit your dog even when he or she is full grown. You'll want one with a divider, so you can make the space in the crate small now when your puppy is little, but that you can expand as your puppy gets larger and needs more space.

You want to turn the crate into something your puppy can call home. Make it comfortable. Purchase a cushioned crate pad for the bottom of the crate, or line the crate with a soft blanket.

The idea behind the crate is this: Whenever you leave the house (for work etc) or when you go to sleep. Put your puppy in the crate. At first your puppy will cry, bark, and probably cry some more. They don't want to be in the crate they want to be where you are. But, unfortunately, they are also prone to mistaking where you are for a bathroom.

Your puppy will not, in most normal circumstances, use the bathroom in their crate. If they spend a lot of time in the crate, and know they are sleeping in the crate later on, they are not going to want to use it as a restroom. No one wants to sleep in their bathroom. Make sure that your puppy doesn't have enough space in the crate that they could use the bathroom in the corner, and still sleep on the other side. You want them to get used to holding it until you wake up, or get home and can take them outside.

Frequent bathroom breaks:

Even puppy bladders have limits, so keep that in mind when you put your pup in. In general, a puppy can usually hold it for about an hour for every month old they are. So if you have a 4 month old puppy, don't expect them to be ok for longer than four hours on their own.